Review — Rollerdrome

Roller skating shooting extravaganza!

Ever wondered what rollerskating in combination with high paced shooting action would be? Well, wonder no more! Rollerdrome is here with a unique blend of third person shooting and inline skating. Add a sauce of The Hunger Games and you get Rollerdrome!

The Hunger Runner

Let me backup. Rollerdrome is a winner takes it all, survival of the fittest, fictitious ‘sport’ of the future, where you take it up against hordes of enemies as you progress through the tournament. It’s quite an intriguing concept, given the popularity of similarly inspired alternate future realities such as The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games books. The game also adds a few story elements to make the mystery as to how this ‘TV show’ (cause of course it’s being televised in this alternate reality) came to exist.

Let me backup even further. Roller skating and shooting? Fast paced? How on earth do you manage that with a controller? Well, the developers made the wise choice to make 90% of the shooting on rails, auto locking on to enemies while still keeping the challenge high enough due to other parameters, such as shields and bullets running out. Bullets running out is actually the core of the game, as the way to generate new bullets is by doing sick tricks on skates. You’re constantly in a dual train of thought, mixing tricks to get bullets with enemy bullet evasion and actually engaging in combat yourself. It’s not easy to manage this, but easy enough to get better at it as you play the game, ultimately making you feel pretty dope as you do flips while slowing down time, while shooting a rocket out of the air and headshotting an enemy as you land on a rail performing a grind.

It sounds impossible to pull off, but as mentioned, the developer designed the game in such a way that it’s easy enough to get to this point of mastery without feeling overwhelmed. You won’t get there straight away, but fast enough to keep you going as you get better. The game isn’t easy though, but that’s mostly due to the challenging enemies than the game design itself. Trial and error is awarded and the replayability is definitely there thanks to challenges and high scores linked to each level.

Gorgeously Goofy

The game has a unique style as well, fitting to the nice blend between seriousity and goofiness that Rollerdrome entails. Checking out the screenshots will give you an instant feel of how the game portrays itself visually and I must say that it does fit the core principles of both the game and the story nicely.

Ultimately, Rollerdrome is a nice breathe of fresh hair in a very typical game market nowadays. It might not be for everyone but for those that really get into it, will really get into it. With a relatively small price tag and an equally short campaign, this is a nice snack of a game worth visiting.

4/5

Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
Download code provided by the publisher.